1879 January 6, Philadelphia, to RuthAnna Cope, Germantown

              247 North 12th St.
Philada 1/6.1879.

My dear
friend:
As I did not gather from thy message when I last
called at Aubrey that thou wouldst have declined seeing me
if not unusually occupied, and as I deem it one of the first
duties of social life, if not the very first, to seek so to
supply one another (to honour a figure from astronomy.) with
the elements of our several orbits, that we may always know
as exactly as may be, where to find one another; and as a
stubborn lameness, some still more urgent engagement, and
the recent icy walking has combined to prevent my again
calling as I have ever since desired; under these
circumstances I feel at liberty to send thee another brief
letter. Had I succeeded in seeing thee at that last call, I
should perhaps have had little to say but